ELECTION 2010WorldNetDaily Exclusive

Penthouse Pet of the Year joins campaign

Drew Zahn covers movies for WND as a contributing writer. A former pastor, he is the editor of seven books, including Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, which sparked his ongoing love affair with film and his weekly WND column, "Popcorn and a (world)view." Drew currently serves as communications director for The Family Leader.

Editor’s note: The following story contains mature themes that may merit caution for some readers.

Kristin Davis

Kristin Davis, an independent candidate running for governor of New York, has announced her first fundraiser will be an auction for an unusual ticket: dinner dates with models from the pornographic magazine Penthouse.

Seven models in all, including a former “Penthouse Pet of the Year,” will host the auction winners at the Penthouse Club restaurant to raise money for Davis’ self-described libertarian campaign, which pledges to seek legalization of marijuana, prostitution and homosexual marriage in New York.

Davis labels the platform a “pro-freedom agenda,” arguing that by legalizing and taxing the pot and prostitution industries, New York can find a creative way out of its financial straits.

“As our budget deficit rises to over $9 billion, it’s time we look for ways of bringing in new revenue rather than increase taxes on struggling New Yorkers. None of the career politicians offer any solutions to our troubled economy; they only offer more of the same – tax increases and service cuts,” Davis states on her campaign website. “Marijuana is a $10-billion-a-year industry in New York State. Its legalization and taxation will help New York’s current financial crises.”

While Davis’ use of pornography models to fill her campaign coffers may be an unorthodox approach, Davis herself has a history of profiting from the sex industry.

Her campaign site boasts that Davis is “formerly known as the Manhattan Madam, who supplied high-priced escorts for [former New York Governor] Eliot Spitzer while in public office” and claims she opened “the world’s most lucrative escort service,” grossing $5 million per year.

Spitzer resigned two years ago from the office Davis is now hoping to win, shamed from power by his confessed role in a prostitution ring.

Two years later, Spitzer’s former madam is running for governor, and Spitzer has since returned to the spotlight in his own way, the New York Times reports, writing a column for Slate, teaching undergrads at City College of New York, lecturing on ethics at Harvard and guest hosting on MSNBC.

Davis, on the other hand, served four months in prison for her role in the scandal.

“As someone who pleaded guilty in a plea bargain for promoting prostitution, I freely acknowledge that I violated state law and for that I am both guilty and sorry,” Davis states on her campaign website. “It is certainly not behavior I will engage in again. I’m out of the biz.”

That doesn’t stop her, however, from seeking to get the law she broke changed.

“It is time to discard our moral misgivings and legalize prostitution for the benefit of society,” she contends. “I point to the murders stemming from Craigslist as evidence enough that our current approach fails us all.”

“As a former madam of New York City’s most successful prostitution ring, I can tell you that prostitution will always flourish, that men of every profession and stripe will patronize it, and our failure to legitimize it only creates criminals. I say we create fewer criminals,” she adds. “Consider emptying a jail cell in exchange for some tax revenue.”

Davis will hold her Penthouse Pet fundraiser on Thursday evening from 7-11 p.m. at New York City’s Taj Lounge.